The Inner Senses

Just as we have our outer senses to percieve the World around us. There exist Inner Senses which Seth describes as these as hidden underground trains that carry important fuel from one country to another. Seth also mentions that full use of the inner senses has not even been achieved by him yet. The whole self is constantly experiencing data from all of the inner senses.Below I’ve included Chapter 19 of “The Seth Material”. More information can also be found in “The Early Sessions” at the end of Book 1 and the very beginning of Book 2.List of Inner Senses (click on the name)

Chapter 19

“In a recent class session, Seth said: “If you would momentarily put aside the selves you take for granted, you could experience your own multidimensional reality. These are not just fine words that mean nothing. I do not harp to you about theory simply because I want to spout theory, but because I want you to put these ideas into practice.”

“Precisely what steps do you want us to follow?” one of the students asked. “First, you must try to understand the nature of reality. To some small extent I have begun to explain this in the Seth Material. The five hundred and some-odd sessions we have barely represent an outline, but they are enough to start with. The ideas, in themselves, will make you think. I have told you that there are Inner Senses as well as physical ones. These will enable you to perceive reality as it exists independently of the physical world. You must learn to recognize, develop, and use these Inner Senses. The methods are given in the material. But you cannot utilize the material until you understand it.

“The material itself is-if you’ll forgive the term cleverly executed; so that as you grapple to understand it, you are already beginning to use abilities beyond those that you take for granted. “You must, first of all, cease identifying yourself completely with your ego, and realize that you can perceive more than your ego perceives. You must demand more of yourself than you ever have before. The material is not for those who would deceive themselves with pretty, packaged, ribboned truths that are parceled out and cut apart so that you can digest them. That sort of material serves a need, but our material demands that you intellectually and intuitively expand.”

One student had a guest with her, Mary, who wrinkled up her forehead when Seth finished speaking. “But if we ‘momentarily put aside’ the ego,” she said to me, “won’t we be unconscious?” I didn’t have a chance to answer. Seth answered for me-his way. “You are an identity,” he said. “Pretend that you hold a flashlight, and the flashlight is consciousness. You can turn this light in many directions, but instead you are in the habit of directing it along one certain path, and you have forgotten that there are other paths.

“All you have to do is swing the flashlight in other directions. When you shift it, the path upon which you have been focusing will momentarily appear dark, but other realities and images will become available to you, and there is nothing to prevent you from swinging the flashlight back to the earlier position.” Seth has used several analogies to explain this point. He said in another class session: “You have more than one conscious mind. We want you to change the channels of your awareness. . . . If you consider the conscious mind that you usually use as one door, then you stand at the threshold of this mind and look out into physical reality. But there are other doors you have other conscious selves. . . .

“You are not expected to become unconscious, then. There is no need to feel that when you block out the ordinary conscious mind, there is only blankness. It is true that when you dose one conscious mind-door-there may be a moment of disorientation before you open another.

“It is also true that you may need to learn the methods by which you can perceive other realities, simply because you are not used to manipulating these other conscious portions of yourself. But these portions are as critical-and even as intellectual-as valid and as real as the consciousness with which you are ordinarily familiar.”

Seth insists that there is only one way to learn what consciousness is: by studying and exploring our own awareness, by changing the focus of our attention and using our own consciousness in as many ways as possible. He says: “When you look into yourself, the very effort involved extends the limitations of your consciousness, expands it, and allows the egotistical self to use abilities that it often does not realize it possesses.”

The Inner Senses are not important because they release clairvoyant or telepathic abilities, but because they reveal to us our own independence from physical matter, and let us recognize our unique, individual multidimensional identity. Properly utilized, they also show us the miracle of physical existence and our place in it. We can live a wiser, more productive, happier physical life because we begin to understand why we are here, individually and as a people.

The Inner Senses help us use telepathic abilities, for example. This doesn’t mean that we will always be able to “read minds.” It means that in family, business, or social contacts, we will be intuitively aware of what the other person is saying to us: we will know what is beneath words. We will also use words better ourselves to communicate our inner feelings since we will know what those feelings are. We will not be afraid of them or feel the need to cover them up.

At times, we can “read minds”-though that is a popular term, leaving much to be desired. But to use the Inner Senses properly, they must be used smoothly, often blending one into the other. It is often difficult to know whether we are receiving clairvoyant or telepathic information, for example. Not that it matters. Using the Inner Senses, we simply increase our entire range of perceptions.

As I write this, I am picking up all sorts of information about my environment, but I am hardly aware of doing so. Certainly I don’t consciously separate visual and auditory data unless I stop to think of it, though I know I receive the information through different senses.

All of the physical senses operate at once to give us our picture of reality. We use the Inner Senses the same way, constantly, far beneath our conscious notice. In order to explain them, we must describe them separately, though their effects are felt together. Seth began to list and explain them early in our sessions, starting in February 1964, and we are still learning to use them. I will list them as he did, and give a few excerpts from his descriptions.

Inner Vibrational Touch

“Think of the Inner Senses as paths leading to an inner reality. The first sense involves perception of a direct nature-instant cognition through what I can only describe as inner vibrational touch. Imagine a man standing on a typical street of houses and grass and trees. This sense would permit him to feel the basic sensations felt by each of the trees about him. His consciousness would expand to contain the experience of wat it is to be a tree — any of all of the trees.

He would feel the experience of being anything he chose within his field of notice:people, insects, blades of grass. He would not lose conscious- ness of who he was, but would perceive these sensations somewhat in the same way that you now feel heat and cold.”

This sense is much like empathy, but far more vital. (Seth says that we can’t experience these Inner Senses in their full intensity now, because our nervous systems can’t handle that much stimuli.) It’s difficult to categorize experiences of this kind, but I think that I was using inner vibrational touch in the following instance:

One night while Bill and Peg Gallagher were visiting us, a neighbor also came to call. Polly was a rather emotional young woman, and she asked me if I could “pick up” any impressions about her. I refused, saying that I was tired. Actually I felt that she was “highly charged,” unpleasantly so, and I didn’t want to get involved. Apparently my curiosity got the best of me. I switched to my Inner Senses to find out what was wrong-but without realizing that I was doing so. (In the use of the Inner Senses, like anything else, we have to learn discrimination and discretion.)

Almost instantly I saw the young woman back in 1950, as a teen-ager. She was in a hospital bed, having labor pains. I felt them, in my living room. The experience was exceptionally vivid, and the pain quite real. I saw an older woman and a young man in the hospital room and was able to describe them. Polly identified the people as a former husband and his mother, but denied having a child, though she said that a girl friend delivered an illegitimate daughter that same year.

At first the pain frightened me so that I just blurted out what was happening; I didn’t mean to embarrass Polly. Later I felt foolish and angry at myself, wondering if the pain episode was some kind of subconscious dramatization. Two years later Polly left town. Before she went, she called to tell me that the episode was quite legitimate. The child had been her own, and my description of the room tallied with her hospital room. Naturally, she didn’t want anyone to know about the child, who had been put up for adoption (and it was none of my business anyway). She had been brooding about the birth the night she visited us, because she had just heard from the baby’s father for the first time in years. Probably this is why I “tuned in” to the episode. In this case I used inner vibrational touch to become aware of her feelings.

Generally, though, this first Inner Sense can be extremely valuable, leading to expansion of experience, greater understanding, and compassion. Using it, with practice, you can feel the living emotional element of any living thing, rejoicing in its vitality. It does not diminish individuality, and it does not imply psychic invasion. We are not to be psychic Peeping Toms, but should use these abilities only to help others or, joyfully, as we use muscles and bones. The intent is important, but I don’t believe that you can use these senses wrongfully in any basic way; if you aren’t ready to utilize them properly, your own personality will see to it that you don’t use them consciously at all.

Psychological Time

“Psychological Time is a natural pathway that was meant to give an easy route of access from the inner world to the outer, and back again, though you do not use it as such. Psychological Time originally enabled man to live in the inner and outer worlds with relative case. . . . As you develop in your use of it, you will be able to rest within its framework while you are consciously awake. It adds duration to your normal time. From its framework you will see that physical time is as dreamlike as you once thought inner time was. You will discover your whole selves, peeping inward and outward simultaneously, and know that all divisions are illusion.”

Actually, in practice, Psychological Time leads to development of the other Inner Senses. In Psy-Time, as we call it, you simply turn your focus of attention inward. Sit or lie quietly and close your eyes. Pretend that tere is a world within as vivid and real as the physical one. Turn off your physical senses. If you want, imagine that they have dials and you flip them off, one by one. The imagine that the Inner Senses have another set of dials. Imaginatively, turn them on. This is one method of beginning.

You may, instead, just lie quietly and concentrate on a dark screen until images or lights appear on it. Do not concentrate on worries or daily trivia that may arise as soon as you block out the physical distractions. If such thoughts do come to the foreground of attention, then you are not ready to proceed. First you must get rid of them.

Since we can’t concentrate fully on two things at once, you may focus your attention on the screen again or on any imaginary image — this will banish the annoying worries. Or you may pretend tat the worries themselves have images and then “see” these vanishing away.

At a certain point you will feel alert and conscious but very light. Within your mind you may see bright lights. You may hear sounds or voices. Some may be telepathic or clairvoyant messages. Some may simply be subconscious pictures. As you practice, you will learn to tell one from the other.

Gradually as you progress, you will feel apart from time as we know it during the exercise. You may ave various kinds of subjective experiences, from extrasensory episodes to simple periods of inspiration and direction. I sometimes have out-of-body travels, for instance during Psy-Time. This sense leads to refreshment, relaxation, and peace. It can be used in many ways, for different purposes. Most of my students now utilize this sense quite well, and use it as a preliminary, to other experiences.

Perception of Past, Present, and Future

“If you will remember our imaginary man as he stands upon a street, you will recall that I spoke of his feeling all of the unitary essences of each living thing within his range, using the first Inner Sense. Using this third sense, this experience would be expanded. If he so chose, he would also feel the past and future essence of each living thing within his range.”

Remember, according to Seth these Inner Senses are used by the whole self constantly. Since past, present, and future have no basic reality, this sense allows us to see through the apparent time barriers. We are seeing things as they really are. Any precognitive experience would entail use of this Inner Sense. It is often used spontaneously when Psy-Time is practiced.The Conceptual Sense

“The fourth Inner Sense involves direct cognition of a concept in much more than intellectual terms. It involves experiencing a concept completely. Concepts have what we will call electrical and chemical composition (as thoughts do]. The molecules and ions of the consciousness change into [those of I the concept, which is then directly experienced. You cannot truly understand or appreciate any living thing unless you can become that thing.

“You can best achieve some approximation of an idea by using Psychological Time (as a preliminary). Sit in a quiet room. When an idea comes to you, do not play with it intellectually, but reach out to it intuitively. Do not be afraid of unfamiliar physical sensations. With practice and to a limited degree, you will find that you an “become” the idea. You will be inside it, looking out — not looking in.

Concepts such as I am referring to reach beyond your ideas of time and space. If you become proficient in the use of the third Inner Sense [perception of past, present, and future] when cognition is more or less spontaneous, then you can utilize the conceptual sense with more freedom. Any true concept has its origins outside of your camouflage system and continues beyond it. Unless you use the Inner Senses in this manner, you will only receive a glimmering of a concept, regardless of its simplicity.”

I was using this sense, I believe, in the episode described in Chapter 17, experiencing a concept that could not be expressed adequately in words, when everything in the room seemed to grow to tremendous size.

Cognition of Knowledgeable Essence

“Remember that these Inner Senses operate as a whole, working together smoothly, and that to some degree the divisions between them are arbitrary on my part. This fifth sense differs from the fourth [conceptual sense] in that it does not involve cognition of a concept. It is similar to the fourth sense in that it is free from past, present, and future, and involves an intimate becoming, or transformation of self into something else.

“This is difficult to explain. You attempt to understand a friend by using your physical senses. Use of this fifth sense would enable you to enter into your friend. In its fullest sense, it is not available to you within your system. It does not imply that one entity can control another. It involves direct instantaneous cognition of the essence of living ’tissue.’ I use the word ’tissue’ with caution and ask you not to think of it necessarily in terms of flesh.

“All entities are in one way or another enclosed within themselves, yet also connected to others. Using this sense, you penetrate through the capsule that encloses the self. This Inner Sense, like all others, is being used constantly by the inner self, but very little of the data received is sifted through to the subconscious or ego. Without the use of this sense, however, no man would ever come close to understanding another.” This sense is a stronger version of inner vibrational touch.Innate Knowledge of Basic Reality “This is an extremely rudimentary sense. It is concerned with the entity’s innate working knowledge of the basic vitality of the universe, without which no manipulations of vitality would be possible as, for example, you could not stand up straight without first having an innate sense of balance.

“Without this sixth sense and its constant use by the inner self, you could not construct the physical camouflage universe. You can compare this sense with instinct, as you think of it, although it is concerned with the innate knowledge of the entire universe. Particular data about specific areas of reality are given to a living organism to make manipulation within that area possible. The inner self has at its command complete knowledge, but only portions are used by an organism. A spider, spinning its web, is using this sense in almost its purest form. The spider has no intellect or ego, and its activities are pure spontaneous uses of the Inner Senses, unhampered and uncamouflaged to a great extent. But inherent in the spider, as in man, is the complete comprehension of the universe as a whole.”

Seth always maintains that the answers to our questions about reality lie within us. They reveal themselves to us when we turn our attention away from physical data and look inward; this is when the sixth Inner Sense comes into play. It also shows itself in inspirations, and episodes of spontaneous “knowing”. Surely this sense suddenly came into operation during my experience with “cosmic consciousness” and was partially responsible for my “Idea Construction” manuscript. This sense gives rise to most experiences of a revelationary character.

The trouble is that we must somehow translate the data into terms that we can understand, explaining it verbally or with images and distortions are bound to result. Some such experiences can’t be expressed physically, yet the individual concerned is convinced of their validity.Expansion or Contraction of the Tissue Capsule

“This sense operates in two ways. It can be an extension or enlargement of the self, a widening of its boundaries and of conscious comprehension. It can also be a pulling together of the self into an ever-smaller capsule that enables the self to enter other systems of reality. The tissue capsule surrounds each consciousness and is actually an energy field boundary, keeping the inner self ‘s energy from seeping away-

“No consciousness exists in any system without this capsule enclosing it. These capsules have also been called astral bodies. The seventh Inner Sense allows for an expansion or contraction of this tissue capsule.”

Rob and I have had some experience using this Inner Sense. So have several of my students. In Psy-Time this results in a peculiar 11 elephantiasis” feeling: I feel as if I am expanding and yet getting lighter and lighter in weight. The sensation can also arise just before an out-of-body experience. I have felt this in reverse in several sessions with the other personality, Seth Two.Disentanglement from Camouflage

Complete disentanglement from camouflage comes rarely witin your system, although it is possible to achieve it, particularly in connection with Psychological Time. When Psychological Time is utilized to its fullest extent, then camouflage is lessened to an astounding degree. With disentanglement, the inner self disengages itself from one particular camouflage before it either adopts another set smoothly or dispenses with camouflage entirely. This is accomplished through what you might call a changing of frequencies or vibrations: a transformation of vitality from one particular pattern or aspect to another. In some ways, your dream world gives you a closer experience with basic inner reality than does your waking world, where the Inner Senses are so shielded from your awareness.”

We’ve had very little conscious experience with this Inner Sense. Only in one small episode, mentioned earlier, when I felt bodiless and formless, like conscious air, have I ever approached using it.Diffusion by the Energy Personality

“An energy personality who wishes to become a part of your system does so using this sense. The energy personality first diffuses himself into many parts. Since entry into your plane or system, as a member of it, cannot be made in any other manner, it must be made in the simplest terms, and later built up-sperm of course, being an entry in this respect. The energy of the personality must then be recombined.”

What Seth is saying here is that the inner self uses this sense to initiate the birth of one of its personalities in physical life. It may also have a part to play in some mediumistic activities on the part of the surviving personality who wishes to communicate, and it may be used in out-of-body experiences that involve other than physical reality.

What is the point in learning to use the Inner Senses? Seth spoke about some of the benefits in the recorded session he gave for the college psychology class. He said, “You will not be swallowed by subjectivity. You will learn what reality is. . . . What is not understood is that self-investigation initiates states of consciousness with which you are usually not familiar. Now these can be used as investigative tools.

“In the sort of exploration of which I am speaking, the personality attempts to go within itself, to find its way through the veils of adopted characteristics to its own inner identity. . . . The inner core of the self has telepathic and clairvoyant abilities that greatly affect family relationships-and your civilization. Now you are not using them effectively. These are precisely those abilities that are needed now. If there is to be any hope of world communication, then each of you must understand where your potentials are as individual subjective creatures.

“Books cannot tell you this. Even if you discover, through psychoanalysis, where your neuroses lie, you are in very shallow water. You are still exploring the topmost levels of your personality, and you do not have the benefit of those altered states of consciousness that occur when you look into yourself in the manner I have prescribed.

“There is a condition of consciousness that is more awake than any you have ever known-a condition in which you are aware of your own waking and dreaming selves simultaneously. You can become fully awake while the body sleeps. You can extend the present limitations of your awareness.”

What Seth is alluding to is that the practice of Psy-Time does stretch normal consciousness. All kinds of previously inhibited inspirations, hunches, and helpful extrasensory information now come into conscious awareness. When you do Psy-Time regularly, you become alert to data that comes through the Inner Senses. You react to the data and learn to handle a larger amount of stimuli than before.

This intuitional alertness carries over into daily life and into the sleeping state. Through instructions given by Seth I’ve learned to come fully awake while dreaming, as mentioned earlier. In this state you recognize your dreams as dreams and can manipulate them more or less at will. You can leave your body safely sleeping, for a projection of consciousness. All of this involves work, however-at least on my part. You must learn, through experience, to maintain the proper level of consciousness, and there is always the possibility of failing back to the usual dream state.

These levels of consciousness are only preliminaries to another state that I have reached but seldom. In this state your intellect, intuitions, and entire being operate at a level that is really supranormal. Your senses are almost unbelievably acute. This state can occur whether you are normally awake, “awake” in the sleep condition, or in a trance. But you feel as if you have lived your life in a dream and are now awake. Momentarily you are aware of your multidimensional reality. Once you have had this experience, you never forget it.

These achievements begin with the simple practice of Psy-Time. They begin when you turn your focus of attention away from physical reality for a few moments a day. Each person will experience the Inner Senses in a different way, since perception of any kind is highly individual. It is extremely difficult to use the other Inner Senses without first using Psy-Time, however. In fact some of my students “turned on” their other Inner Senses spontaneously when doing PsyTime. Some have used Psy-Time to receive information concerning their past lives; in this case, they used many of the Inner Senses together to search out the data they wanted.

Taken together, the Inner Senses will give each individual a picture of reality as it exists independently of physical matter, an image of the inner identity that is his own. They will automatically increase concentration and release abilities that will give daily life additional meaning, vitality, and purpose.Other Inner Senses

(“Number forty-six. In Chapter Nineteen of The Seth Material you gave a list of the inner senses. Are there more of these that you haven’t told us about?”)

There are indeed. They have to do, however, with experiences that you will not normally encounter in your particular system, that lie latent.

Almost any cell has the capacity for growing into any given organ, or forming any part of the body. It has the capacity for developing sense organs that, practically speaking, will not be developed if the cell becomes an elbow or a knee, but the capacity is there. This applies not only to your own species but in many cases between species, and there are basic units in all living matter capable of forming animal or vegetable life, capable of developing the perceptive mechanisms inherent in any of these.

It is therefore theoretically possible for you to see the world through a frog’s eye, or a bird’s or an ant’s. We are speaking here of physical senses. The inner self has also latent inner senses beside the ones that it normally uses while the consciousness is tuned into a particular camouflage system.

Some however, are inexpressible in physical terms, and only analogies could be used to hint of their nature. In this book there is no need to discuss them. They belong in a book given more specifically to interior methods of perception.

Text from The Early Sessions, Book 1

Inner Sense 4 All this preliminary chitchat is necessary, I’m afraid. While you still deal with words I must work with words, strung one before the other. Most unfortunate.

The fact remains that the inner senses are equipped to let you perceive inner reality. You can use them; and for Philip’s information the evidence of the inner senses is immediate, and vivid, and direct-much more vivid, Philip, than for example your camouflage experience of the color red. Everyone sees red differently. There is no absolute objective red but only gradations of the idea red.

You do not even perceive camouflage reality with your outer senses with any dependability. Telepathy, which belongs to the inner senses, is used constantly. Without it your languages would be meaningless. The inner senses, Philip, experience direct data instantaneously.

The table, and I’m afraid this is somewhat review, Joseph, the table as you know is not solid. Your scientists know this. Your outer senses lie when they experience the table as solid. You know this. The inner senses are not so deceived, and never have been. The inner senses experience directly the reality of which your matter is composed.

(And again, all through this material jane spoke with very firm emphasis.)

I went into the connection between the third inner sense and concepts for a reason, and this will now be an introduction into the fourth inner sense. And I am appalled: Getting this through Ruburt’s subconscious should be quite a trick.

The fourth inner sense is the conceptual sense. Now you think of a concept in terms of an idea, which you can only understand in intellectual terms. However, the fourth inner sense involves again direct cognition, only now of a concept in much more than you would call intellectual terms.

It involves experiencing a concept completely, to the extent of being a concept completely; and already I hear shouts of dissent. No, you do not leave what you are pleased to call yourself behind. You merely change what you are into a different pattern.

Concepts have what we will term for now electrical and chemical composition. Nothing exists in any universe or on any plane that does not have form of one sort or another. You may not be able to perceive the form but it always exists. Direct experience of a concept therefore involves the transformation of one pattern into another.

The consciousness that directs this transformation knows what it is doing. The molecules and ions change into the concept, which is thereby directly experienced.

I will continue on this matter after you take a brief break, and again, save the pieces. We may need them later.

This is an elegant little discussion, and I enjoy listening in. I would suggest whenever it is possible that Philip read the material from the beginning.

You are always receiving data from the inner senses. It is sifted through the subconscious, and when you receive it directly, or more or less directly for the first time, it can be frightening merely because of the unfamiliarity, and because of the unusual vividness. This is why I have said that the inner senses present their own evidence.

Now returning to the inner conceptual sense. You cannot truly understand or appreciate any other thing unless you can become that thing. This is definite. Otherwise you only receive an approximation and a distortion.

Your outside egos are constructed to enable you to deal with the camouflage world. It is necessary. It necessarily also narrows your concentration and your understanding. During your existence you are focused, you are stuck to, you are placed and centered in, your physical universe by the outside ego. It manages your manipulation of camouflage material.

You cannot displace it completely, except at your own peril. Nevertheless you can learn to trick it. You can learn to cease focusing now and then and let the inner senses look out through the ego’s eyes.

And you miss the point often, in that such trickery of the outside ego benefits the outside ego, and brings knowledge to it that it would not have otherwise.

Philip, earlier, mentioned hypnosis. Existence on your plane or any other plane is merely self-hypnosis. As far as an analogy is concerned, this one is very nearly perfect. Your existence, and mine for that matter, on any particular level is predetermined by complete concentration or focus of inner selves upon the particular universe in question. And your camouflage patterns can most aptly be compared to the hallucinary effects created by the hypnotist upon his subject.

Only in this case the hallucinary effects are actual constructions upon the plane in question, and involve problems that must be worked out. The hallucinations appear more or less consistent merely because everyone on that particular level is under the effects of self-hypnosis, and because they have already constructed hallucinary senses, the outer senses, in order to perceive the hallucinary world that they have created.

This is not meant to deny the importance or the value of the particular hallucinary universe in any way. It has a definite purpose. But the analogy holds, and is more valid than you might think. Complete concentration and focus is your answer.

When this focus is finished, when the subject tells himself “Now I will come to, now I have solved the problems that I set out to solve,” then what happens is the withdrawal of the self from the plane. The construction vanishes and is heir to the materials which compose the particular universe.

I will also go into this more deeply. You should be able to see now why a concept such as I refer to is difficult to achieve on your plane. You cannot focus upon it thoroughly. When the fourth inner sense is exercised, and I will outline exercises and all three of you would certainly benefit by following my suggestions, you will discover what an idea really is.

You will discover this by experiencing the idea directly, and you can best achieve some approximation of accomplishment by using psychological time. Your idea of experiencing a concept is doubtlessly to follow it through from beginning to end. Sweet tootsies, there is no beginning or end, and this idea of yours is the result of a complete and utter concentration upon camouflage time.

Nor does the evolution of either an idea or a species involve time. It merely involves time in your universe. You insist upon labeling as laws of absolutes what is actually your distorted and limited vision of concepts as they seem to appear to you. Using psychological time, sit In a quiet room; and I hope this is not impossible, when an idea comes to you, and I presume it will, do not play with it intellectually. You can dissect it to your heart’s content after the experience.

Reach out to the idea intuitively. Do not be afraid of or reject unfamiliar bodily sensations. With practice, and to a very limited degree, you will find that you can become the idea. You will be inside the idea, looking out, not looking in. This is thought.

If you think you think you are in for a surprise.

Again I suggest a brief break. And may I congratulate you Ruburt, for keeping your God-almighty intellect out; and I will have more to say here to Philip about the intellect.

Inner Sense 5 Only in this case the dramatization provides its own actors. I am going to leave further discussion of this sense until some later session, when after additional material you will be able to understand it more thoroughly. And again remember that these senses, these inner senses, operate as a whole, and that at least to some degree the divisions between them are somewhat arbitrary on my part, and are made for the sake of simplicity.

The fifth inner sense carries us further along in this direction, and involves what I will call cognition of the knowledgeable essence. This sense differs from the fourth inner sense in that it does not involve the cognition of a concept.

It is similar to the fourth sense in that it is free of course from the arbitrary past, present and future, and it is also similar in that it involves an intimate becoming, or a transformation of self into something else.

In this case it would involve living tissue. The analogy is difficult on your terms. With your outer senses now, you attempt to understand a relative or a friend. Use of this fifth inner sense, were it available to you, and in its fuller sense -fortunately it is not-would enable you to enter into your friend.

Now this certainly sounds not only unbelievable from your point of view, but probably undesirable, and if so I appreciate and understand your reactions. However, I certainly cannot let possible unfavorable reactions on your part govern what material I give you.

This inner sense is not only an important one but is immensely beneficial, and is not misused in any way by those able to use it. Very simply, these senses do not function until they can be handled correctly. This sense in no way involves invasion. It does not imply that one entity can control another. It merely involves direct, instantaneous cognition of the essence of living tissue.

I use the word tissue with some caution. Nevertheless all entities, except for a few important exceptions, are in one way or another enclosed within themselves, and also connected to others by some sort of capsule, and your word tissue would seem to be the closest I can come to this.

This fifth sense, then, would enable you some freedom to cross this living tissue boundary into other living territory. Do not think of this living tissue necessarily as flesh, since those who are capable of using this sense fully are not on your plane to begin with.

Now this sense, like all other inner senses, is being used by the inner self-conscious ego, but the outer ego is not permitted awareness along these lines. A minimum amount of information from these inner senses is given to the outer ego after it is sifted through the subconscious. But only a minimum amount.

Without any use of this fifth inner sense no man would even come close to understanding another. This is an extremely important point, and perhaps your phrase “to put yourself in someone else’s place,” most clearly approximates this sense.

Direct experience in these inner senses will give you a much clearer picture of them than any words, even mine, can do. You understand however that any direct experience will be of very low power. I don’t want to blast you off your feet.

Molecular construction is formed from the inside, and is not rigid. On your plane such construction and such electronic and atomic patterns, frameworks and fields, are rigid to a degree, but even on your plane there is constant and apparent change. The pattern on your plane is more or less rigid while you exist on your plane. Nevertheless, the atoms and molecules within that pattern are far from rigid, though the pattern remains more or less the same. It is your habit, or the habit of your scientists, to carry apparent universal laws over into areas in which they do not apply.

In actuality molecular structures and patterns are not rigid. They merely appear so from your viewpoint. Nor are they imposed from without. Vitality gives itself a shape and form. The form does not impose itself upon the vitality. Therefore it is not strange to consider the possibility of changing form at will. and this is exactly what happens basically in the universe.

To some extent, and to a much larger extent than you realize, this happens on your own plane, only in this case it is the subconscious will that does the actual transforming.

In a much more simple manner, however. You make your own camouflage universe as I have told you. The growth of a disability, say the appearance of an ulcer, is the introduction of another camouflage reality to the physical body Something that was not there suddenly is there, and in your physical universe.

Inner Sense 6 You are quite right. The solution hit upon is an excellent one, and I had nothing to do with it, having decided that I was much safer if I left such decisions to you from now on. All joking aside, this latest idea should really be an excellent one, and I would have suggested it myself except that I could not get through to Ruburt. He has felt guilty over the thought of taking any space from you, and the guilt made him feel resentful.

I am quite pleased, you will benefit by this, and also from the other changes in your establishment that you have been considering, including a method of using the back room all year. Resentment had a lot to do with Ruburt’s banging around. Not resentment at you, Joseph, but resentment because he felt guilty for not being satisfied. If you intend to stay where you are for any amount of time, then you would do well to get the most out of your establishment, and the enlargement being contemplated would be very beneficial.

Incidentally, I share Ruburt’s annoyance with your fat neighbor across the way, and I will tell you some tales about him before I am finished.

The needed change that you both need can be met in your present environment by enlarging your kitchen, and unless you can move into the country, I would not suggest that you move at all. Naturally I prefer that you feel secure and as settled as possible, for the simple reason that the sessions will go better.

The two changes, one in the back, and your kitchen, will satisfy you both to a large measure for quite a while, and therefore are desirable since they do not entail a wholesale breaking up of daily pattern. I trust I have said enough along these lines.

As I mentioned, the sixth inner sense involves something that can be likened to what you call the instincts, except that it is a property of the inner self Consider a spider spinning a web. The web is a camouflage pattern that definitely exists on your plane. Here your simple spider is using his sixth sense, for these senses are the latent property of other living things, and not restricted to mankind.

What you have in the spider’s activity amounts to a demonstration of the sixth inner sense almost in its pure form. The spider has no intellect or outer ego, and his manipulations are the direct result of activities performed by pure and spontaneous use of the inner senses. They are unhampered and uncamouflaged to a great extent.

All of the inner senses are not utilized to the same degree on any plane. Many planes are given over to the training in the use of one or two of the most important inner senses. I liked the analogy of the spider and his web because it is such a simple and uncomplicated example of camouflage construction, divorced from intermediaries such as ego or tools.

Inherent, and I repeat inherent in the spider as in man, is the complete comprehension, or rather comprehension through direct experience, of the universe as a whole. In its particular existence the spider is not aware of all this knowledge, but it uses what is necessary of it to construct its web. It experiences directly. There is of course no “I” consciousness, but there is direct consciousness, nevertheless, of the most intimate kind.

Give the spider an ego and an intellect and you will see then how the picture would change. These would enable him to enlarge upon his scope of awareness and activity, but at the same time impediments would be placed so that the web construction would no longer appear either as direct as far as its source is concerned, nor as spontaneous.

You construct your own camouflage existence as the spider constructs his web, but you are not aware of the threads. You do not understand that they originate within yourself, although it is very simple to smile as the lowly spider weaves its web. The spider’s construction is severely limited to one plane, but this is not the case with your constructions, which may have reality on many planes at once, and in ways with which you are not familiar.

It should be obvious that although an idea is born in time, after its conception it is free from time in a way that a spider’s web can never be free from time. To the extent that a construction exists as camouflage, to that extent it is bound by and vulnerable to physical laws.

If energy is imprisoned or focused into the physical construction to the extent that a construction appears on your plane, while still not fully constructed, left incomplete in some aspects, to that extent the idea behind the construction is not bound by physical laws.

The tissue capsule of which I have spoken earlier surrounds every living consciousness. To some extent it could be compared to an extra layer of skin surrounding the physical body, except that it is not constructed in the same manner upon your plane, and is invisible to you under ordinary circumstances.

It is actually a field, that is energy field, boundary. It protects the inner self by acting as a barrier that keeps the whole self’s energy controlled, and keeps it from seeping away. At the same time it protects the whole self from certain radiations which do not here concern you. No living consciousness exists on any plane without this tissue capsule enclosing it.

The capsule of course is not a solid on any plane. To some inhabitants of other planes that have access to your plane, all that can be seen of you is this tissue capsule, since such inhabitants have had no experience in your particular type of camouflage construction. Therefore your camouflage patterns are invisible to them, but the tissue capsules are not.

These capsules can be seen by you under certain circumstances, and have been called astral bodies-a term which does not meet with my pleasure. I would like to repeat again the fact that in many instances, and with exceptions, ideas not fully constructed on your plane not only have great force but are also freer from the effects of physical laws. The idea has at its command then greater and varied methods of expression, and from it varieties of construction can be attempted. I have mentioned the advantages of a painting over a piece of sculpture, and an idea not fully captured will find further expression.

This is not to say that perfection is not to be sought after. It is of course impossible to achieve but the almost-completed leaves room for further development of the idea, and the idea is not imprisoned.

The portrait that you sent to the gallery is evocative. It continues to grow. It is not completely at the mercy of a completed camouflage. The whole self is never completely constructed on your plane. At best it finds expression now and then. A camouflage plane, merely by being what it is, makes it impossible for the whole self to find expression. There is almost hypnotic focus of energy for a particular time for a particular reason.

The inner self is always there. You are always aware of it in the same manner that you are aware of what is happening in a trance. This is another excellent analogy, if you’ll forgive me for patting myself on the back.

This sixth sense is one of the basic ones which makes use of the others possible. Mankind often confuses it with, and calls it, instinct. It is merely the innate knowledge which makes manipulation of energy from one form to another possible, and you use it constantly. The spider is more familiar with it in its pure form than you are. That is, than mankind is.

It is this sense which directs your own growth physically, and which forms the cells of your physical body and constantly changes the stuff of your body.

Your plane is a training place in the use of manipulation of energy. Your plane seems to deal with cause and effect, but this is in itself a necessary camouflage. In actuality there is no cause and effect as you think of it. There is only spontaneity. For a particular interval you must be taught as if there were cause and effect, so that the result of spontaneity would not end up as chaos. This statement may seem contradictory but later you will see that it is not.

Now that we have briefly discussed the meaning of a tissue capsule I will go into the seventh inner sense a bit more deeply. This sense allows for an expansion or contraction of the tissue capsule. Theoretically there is no limit to the contraction or expansion allowed, but practically there are usually definite limitations.

I am only going to hint of something here. For fun, think of the expanding tissue capsule in terms of or in connection with, the theory of your expanding universe. Such contemplation should be excellent exercise. This is quite evocative, and I hope I can peek in sometime when you are trying to deal with it.

I will explain it to you, but at a much later date. Also, understand that what you think of or experience as space travel is another camouflage. Space travel so-called is an idea that makes sense only on your plane. I’m saving these little tidbits for you this evening.

Perhaps a rereading of the material on fifth dimension will help you here, and one of these days we will carry that discussion further. In actuality, use of the inner senses will get you anywhere you want to go. The idea of destination in these terms is laughable. Every place is one place. You do the dividing and the separations. That is why your flying saucers are so funny to me.

Inner Sense 7 What I am actually giving you this evening is an outline for our next session, since you are not up to par this evening. Now, the strange sensation experienced by Ruburt just before this session was a taste of our seventh inner sense, but only a small portion. It represents enlargement or an opening up and extension. This operates in two directions. The purpose of the enlargement or extension I will discuss at the next session. It is of course an enlargement or extension of the self, and a widening of the boundaries of the self, and therefore of even conscious comprehension.

Ruburt experienced this on a physical level, trying again to translate inner data into sensation that could be recognized by the outer senses. Nevertheless, he did receive a startling glimmer into the possibilities inherent here.

The sense, as I said, operates in two directions, and this is difficult to explain. Operating in a contrary manner, for example, there is a pulling together of the self into an ever smaller and more minute capsule that enables the self to enter into other fields, and experience various rather alien planes.

You will have no doubt noticed that these inner senses all represent actual inner abilities. I am rather surprised that Ruburt hit upon this one at this time, as it is usually a rather difficult ability to attain. He went along with it, which is very good, but he didn’t sustain it long enough so that he could distinguish the other tissue capsules which came within his own extended awareness.